Happy Hump Day and welcome to the WWW Wednesday post for December 28, 2022! WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Taking on a World of Words, where bloggers share the books that answer these three questions (the Three Ws):
- What are you currently reading?
- What did you recently finish reading?
- What do you think you’ll read next?
If you want to participate and you have a blog, answer the three questions above and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. If you do not have a blog, leave a comment with your responses. Have fun, and check out what other participants are reading. You may find your next great read.
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Note: All book descriptions are from Bookshop.org.
What are you currently reading?
I’m still recovering from COVID and haven’t read much. I’ve been reading the inside of my eyelids more than anything else (lol). When I have the energy to do a short reading sprint, I’ve picked up one of the three 2023 ARCs I have in rotation: two short story collections, Angola is Wherever I Plant My Field and Call and Response, and The Spite House.
The Spite House by Johnny Compton
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Description
A terrifying Gothic thriller about grief and death and the depths of a father’s love, Johnny Compton’s The Spite House is a stunning debut by a horror master in the making–The Babadook meets A Head Full of Ghosts in Texas Hill Country.
Eric Ross is on the run from a mysterious past with his two daughters in tow. Having left his wife, his house, his whole life behind in Maryland, he’s desperate for money–it’s not easy to find steady, safe work when you can’t provide references, you can’t stay in one place for long, and you’re paranoid that your past is creeping back up on you.
When he comes across the strange ad for the Masson House in Degener, Texas, Eric thinks they may have finally caught a lucky break. The Masson property, notorious for being one of the most haunted places in Texas, needs a caretaker of sorts. The owner is looking for proof of paranormal activity. All they need to do is stay in the house and keep a detailed record of everything that happens there. Provided the house’s horrors don’t drive them all mad, like the caretakers before them.
The job calls to Eric, not just because there’s a huge payout if they can make it through, but because he wants to explore the secrets of the spite house. If it is indeed haunted, maybe it’ll help him understand the uncanny power that clings to his family, driving them from town to town, making them afraid to stop running.
Angola is Wherever I plant My Field by João Melo
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Description
In this collection of eighteen humorous absurdist stories, Melo weaves together postmodernism, postcolonial realities and Angolan history, through an intrusive narrator and author. Angola is Wherever I plant My field will make the readers laugh as they reflect on life and society through stories set in Luanda, Haifa, America, and North-Korea.
Call and Response by Gothataone Moeng
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Description
Richly drawn stories about the lives of ordinary families in contemporary Botswana as they navigate relationships, tradition and caretaking in a rapidly changing world.
A young widow adheres to the expectations of wearing mourning clothes for nearly a year, though she’s unsure what the traditions mean or whether she is ready to meet the world without their protection. An older sister returns home from a confusing time in America, only to explain at every turn why she’s left the land of opportunity. A younger sister hides her sexual exploits from her family, while her older brother openly flaunts his infidelity.
The stories collected in Call and Response are strongly anchored in place – in the village of Serowe, where the author is from, and in Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana – charting the emotional journeys of women seeking love and opportunity beyond the barriers of custom and circumstance.
Gothataone Moeng is part of a new generation of writers coming out of Africa whose voices are ready to explode onto the literary scene. In the tradition of writers like Chimamanda Adiche and Jhumpa Lahiri, she offers us insight into communities, experiences and landscapes through stories that are cinematic in their sweep, with unforgettable female protagonists.
What did you recently finish reading?
Since the last WWW Wednesday post, I’ve read Witches of Brooklyn: S’More Magic (9/6/22) by Sophie Escabasse and thoroughly enjoyed. Next to Click, Witches of Brooklyn is one of my favorite graphic novel series. There are so many panels that I’ve screenshot from this installment that literally made me laugh out loud. I’m very much looking forward to the next graphic novel in this series. Fingers crossed that there will be another one.
Witches of Brooklyn: S’More Magic by Sophie Escabasse
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Description
You can take a witch out of Brooklyn . . . and put her in the woods? As if learning magic wasn’t hard enough, now Effie has to go to SUMMER CAMP! The hit middle-grade graphic novel series continues with this new adventure that’s filled to the brim with magic and mayhem!
School’s out, and Effie is ready for SUMMER! Too bad she’s being sent off to the wilderness for boring old summer camp. Nothing says “exciting new adventure” like being stuck in nature with mosquitoes. Sure, other witches might be there. And maybe she’ll learn some cool new magic.
But Effie would rather spend time with the friends she already has. She’s always relied on them for help. . . . What will happen when she heads off to camp all by herself?
Sophie Escabasse brings us more magic in this new volume of Witches of Brooklyn!
What do you think you’ll read next?
My Netgalley ARC of Black Candle Women by Diane Marie Brown is going to hold this slot until I finish what’s on my ‘currently reading’ shelf. The cover is stunning and I have a strong feeling that I’m really going to enjoy it.
Black Candle Women by Diane Marie Brown
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Description
A warm and wry family drama with a magical twist about four generations of Black women living under one roof and the family curse that stems back to a Voodoo shop in 1950s New Orleans
“Propulsive and poignant, Black Candle Women concocts an intoxicating potion of warmth, wisdom, and wonder.” –Ava DuVernay
Generations of Montrose women–Augusta, Victoria, Willow–have lived together in their quaint two-story bungalow in California for years. They keep to themselves, never venture far from home, and their collection of tinctures and spells is an unspoken bond between them.
But when seventeen-year-old Nickie Montrose brings home a boy for the first time, their quiet lives are thrown into disarray. For the other women have been withholding a secret from Nickie that will end her relationship before it’s even begun: the decades-old family curse that any person they fall in love with dies.
Their surprise guest forces each woman to reckon with her own past choices and mistakes. And as new truths about the curse emerge, the family is set on a collision course dating back to a Voodoo shop in 1950s New Orleans’s French Quarter–where a hidden story in a mysterious book may just hold the answers they seek in life and in love…
“Richly imagined and elegantly told, with plenty of satisfying secrets, heartaches, and twists.“
–Sadeqa Johnson, international bestselling author of Yellow Wife and The House of Eve
QOTD (Questions of the Day)
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
Let me know in the comments below.
Happy Reading!
